Officials assess damage after tornadoes pummel Dallas area

By Rick Jervis and Doyle Rice, USA TODAY

Surveyors fanned out across North Texas on Wednesday to assess the damage from as many as 13 tornadoes that pummeled towns around Dallas, flattening homes, flipping tractor-trailers and grounding flights.

By Tom Pennington, Getty Images

David Lowe carries his daughter's dog after it was rescued from the rubble of a destroyed home on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas.

David Lowe carries his daughter's dog after it was rescued from the rubble of a destroyed home on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas.

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No deaths were reported.

A preliminary report issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety, Division of Emergency Management shows the cities of Arlington and Lancaster received the brunt of the damage during Tuesday's storms.

Arlington reported 428 homes and businesses damaged, including 88 classified as "heavily damaged," as well as a nursing home that received moderate damage, according to the report. Only seven injuries - six minor and one critical - were reported there.

Fire officials in Lancaster, 20 miles south of Dallas, reported a tornado on Tuesday touched down in the northern part of the city and moved southeast through the city, the report said. Around 150 homes were destroyed, 100 residents displaced to shelters and 10 injuries reported, including two listed as severe. City officials there issued a disaster declaration.

Dallas also reported 40 homes and a truck stop were severely damaged.

The destructive reminder of a young tornado season Tuesday left thousands without power and grounded passengers at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, where more than 110 planes were damaged.

Delays and cancellations are likely Wednesday. "The variable we really don't know is how fast we can get the inspections done and, second of all, what level of potential damage we find that must be repaired," airline spokesman Tim Smith said.

The Dallas Morning News reported that American and its regional affiliate American Eagle canceled 424 flights Wednesday "as their mechanics hurried to inspect aircraft that were pounded by hail in Tuesday's storms."

American spokeswoman Andrea Huguely told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that American and American Eagle took 94 aircraft out of service as of 7:30 a.m. ET Wednesday morning because of hail damage.

Huguely said the company was working to inspect the planes as quickly as possible. The Morning News said American "flew in extra mechanics from its Tulsa maintenance base, while American Eagle brought in mechanics from its Abilene base to check over the regional carrier's aircraft."

At least 1,400 passengers disrupted by Tuesday's cancellations were forced to spend that night at DFW's terminals, airport spokesman David Magana told the Star-Telegram. He said the airport provided cots, blankets, pillows and toiletry kits by request to the stranded passengers.

"Thousands of other passengers went to area hotels or made other arrangements for lodging," Magana said.

Starting about 1:30 p.m., severe storms hit the area and continued for more than two hours, the National Weather Service said.

National Weather Service meteorologist Jesse Moore said Wednesday that the damage in Arlington suggested an EF2 twister struck there. EF2 tornadoes are classified as having wind gusts between 111 and 135 mph.

The Red Cross estimated that 646 homes were damaged throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including 205 that were destroyed, according to the report.

In suburban Dallas, Lancaster police officer Paul Beck said 10 people were injured, two severely. Three people were injured in Arlington, including two nursing home residents, Assistant Fire Chief Jim Self said.

As the sun rose Wednesday over Lancaster, one of the hardest hit areas, it was clear that twisters had bounced in and out of neighborhoods, destroying homes at random. Vehicles were tossed like toys, coming to rest in living rooms and bedrooms.

Around 150 people spent Tuesday night in a shelter.

The city, 20 miles south of Dallas, was the worst-hit city, absorbing "extensive damage," said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, who heads the County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

In the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, a Speedy Oil Change and Tune-Up shop was destroyed, and other buildings were damaged.

About 12,600 homes in Arlington alone remained without power late Tuesday, said Tiara Ellis Richard, a police spokeswoman for the city.

Residents were warned early Tuesday of the possibility of severe weather, but the bad weather spun off tornadoes with such ferocity that they caught most everyone by surprise, Jenkins said. "The people who got hit first got little warning," he said.

Local TV showed 14,000-pound tractor-trailers in Dallas caught in wind funnels and being flicked high into the air like matchsticks.

Social media sites also lit up during the storm, as users reported scrambling to bathrooms and basements for safety. One woman described riding out the storm in a food cooler at a Costco store with dozens of other customers.

American Airlines took the rare step of shutting down all flights at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, Smith said. Workers had to inspect 68 American Airline planes and 33 American Eagle planes for hail damage.

DFW Airport spokesman David Magana said more than 110 planes were damaged by hail, but he didn't say which airlines.

Severe thunderstorms are forecast Wednesday for the lower Mississippi Valley and Tennessee Valley, Weather Channel meteorologist Kevin Roth said. The states at greatest risk for severe storms, according to the Storm Prediction Center, include Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama and western Tennessee. Large hail and strong winds are the greatest threat, but tornadoes are also possible.

Tuesday's storms occurred when a high-level trough of cold air collided with surface warm air that had been floating over Texas from the Gulf of Mexico for days, said John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas' state climatologist.

Forecasters predicted severe weather for that area, but the region wasn't prepared for the intensity and severity of the storms, Nielsen-Gammon said.

"They've always known the risk of tornado but they're generally not the super-intense ones," Nielsen-Gammon said.

The area is in the southern rim of "Tornado Alley" and has had its share of destructive twisters in the past, he said. A massive tornado that hit Waco in 1953, killing 114 and injuring 597, still holds the state record for deadliest tornado, according to the National Weather Service.

"Along the list of worst case scenarios for severe weather is for an (EF5) tornado to hit Dallas," Nielsen-Gammon said. "It's the largest metropolitan area that has the great significant risk for that type of tornado."

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